


The Legendary Mackerel Yatai

by adamantine



Category: Free!
Genre: (of a sort), M/M, Urban Legends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-01
Updated: 2016-08-01
Packaged: 2018-07-28 16:08:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7647688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adamantine/pseuds/adamantine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for SASO. Haru hears a rumor about a mackerel yatai that appears only on the full moon. Naturally, he believes it and sets out to find it.</p>
<p>Note: This isn't a particularly ship-y piece. It's more just... silliness.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Legendary Mackerel Yatai

**Author's Note:**

> A yatai is a specific type of Japanese food cart/food stand. Even if you haven’t heard the term, you’ve probably seen one before. If you google image search “yatai” you'll probably go “ohhhhhhhh that’s what that’s called.”

**#SeafoodConnoisseurs**  
Topic is ‘Wednesdays are recipe days.’  
  
 _→ sofishticated joined the channel_  
  
< **sofishticated** > I saw it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

< **maguro235** > Saw what?

< **sashimielitist** > your mom  
  
< **maguro235** > Shut up, sashimielitist.  
  
• **maguro235** slaps **sashimielitist** around a bit with a large trout  
  
< **sofishticated** > The Legendary Mackerel Yatai!!!!!!  
  
< **sabaprince12** > the legendary mackerel yatai?  
  
< **sashimielitist** > you haven’t heard of the LMY?  
  
< **maguro235** > They say it only appears on a full moon… but the location changes every month…

< **maguro235** > Mostly people say they see it in Chugoku though.  
  
< **sofishticated** > That’s right! I saw it in Izumo!  
  
< **maguro235** > So what did it taste like?  
  
< **sofishticated** > I was driving in the fog when I saw the cart from my rear-view mirror…

< **sofishticated** > I drove back and tried to find it, but it was gone.  
  
< **sashimielitist** > what?

**< sashimielitist**> that’s it?

< **sashimielitist** > wwwwwww you probably imagined it

< **sashimielitist** > LAME  
  
< **maguro235** > You sure it wasn’t just some normal yatai?  
  
< **sofishticated** > I swear to you I saw it. There was a huge sign on it with an image of a mackerel. It couldn’t have been anything else.  
  
< **sabaprince12** > what’s so special about the LMY?  
  
< **sofishticated** > Isn’t it obvious!? It’s a legendary yatai! It only sells the best mackerel! Some say it’s run by the God of Mackerel himself!  
  
< **sabaprince12** > hmmmm  
  
 _← sabaprince12 left the channel_

 

Haru logged out of chatroom. He wasn’t a regular member, but sometimes he popped in to share cooking tips or to ask for advice from the other members. This was the first time he’d heard anything about a legendary mackerel yatai. He didn’t doubt its existence for a second. It seemed right to him that something so fantastic should exist.

He checked his calendar. Last night had been a full moon. That gave him plenty of time to prepare for the cart’s next appearance. Certainly he, of all people, would be able to find it. No one else appreciated mackerel the way he did.

* * *

 

Birds chirped. The sky glowed a pale pink color.

Haruka glowered at his watch.

Another full moon was over and he’d still seen no sign of the LMY in Iwatobi. He’d felt so certain he’d find it — no one loved mackerel more than him, no one could be more worthy of finding it, he’d told himself over and over again each full moon - but no amount of loitering around Iwatobi seemed to work. He hadn’t found the Legendary Mackerel Yatai, or any yatai, during his excursions.

Haru yawned. He had school in a few hours. He considered not going but that would mean missing swim practice and tomorrow—no, _today_ was a joint practice with Samezuka. He would have manage somehow. Maybe he could sleep in class.

* * *

 

“That was pathetic. Do you have a cold or something?”

Haru pulled off his goggles. “No.”

Even though Haru knew the reason he’d lost to Rin so thoroughly was because he hadn’t slept in over twenty-four hours he was still annoyed. He didn’t like losing, especially to Rin.

“You sure?” Rin asked.

“I’m just tired.”

“What, stayed up all night splashing around in the bathtub?” Rin mocked.

Haru glared at him. “Not the bathtub.”

Rin looked surprised by his admission. “Wait—you did stay up all night? Doing what.” He said it as though it was absurd that Haru had anything to do at nighttime, as though he had no life outside of school and swimming.

“Looking for the LMY,” Haru mumbled defiantly, a difficult balance to pull off.

“What?”

“Looking for the LMY,” he said, a little louder this time.

“The what?”

“I said—“

“No, what the hell is the LMY.”

“The Legendary Mackerel Yatai.”

“The Legendary… you’re not making any sense.”

Haru sighed. “Let’s get of the pool and I’ll explain it to you.”

* * *

 

Naturally, Rin thought the LMY was the most ludicrous thing he had ever heard of, telling Haru he was a complete idiot for wandering around on a school night looking for a mackerel yatai that, even if it existed, could be anywhere in Japan.

“Logically, you know it’s unlikely you’ll find it even if it does exist,” Rin said as they toweled off in Iwatobi’s locker room.

“I’m going to find it, I can feel it.” He shoved his shirt on with great force to emphasize his certainty.

He’d put it on backwards.

Rin snorted. “You’re not going to give up, huh? Fine, I’ll join you next time.”

“You don’t even like mackerel,” he accused.

“I do, too! I just don’t want to eat it every day like you do.” Which, as far as Haru was concerned, meant he didn’t like mackerel.

“Whatever. Do what you want.”

* * *

 

Even though it was almost midnight, Haru was sweating. The humidity in the air was an oppressive, all-consuming force. He refused to complain about it, not with Rin there, looking perfectly at ease despite the fact that it was the kind of night that being anywhere but in front of a fan was a mistake.

“Ready to give up yet?” Rin asked as they neared the beach. Haru tried to pretend the mist in the air was cool, instead of decidedly tropical.

“No.”

They walked on, stopping every few feet as Haru assessed their surroundings (and tried not to die from moonstroke, which he was now certain was definitely a thing), checking for any signs of a yatai, legendary or otherwise.

He was staring at any alley, eyeing a dumpster as though it might morph into a yatai at any moment, when Rin tugged on his shirt. “Haru, look.”

There, on the sand, in the middle of the beach, was a yatai.

Haru didn’t even need to see the giant mackerel on the sign: he knew it was the LMY the way he knew if he hadn’t been with Rin he would have missed it. A sense of mystical understanding seemed to overcome him (that, or he really was having a moonstroke).

Neither of them spoke as they walked to the beach, making their way towards the improbably located yatai. Haru stumbled for a moment when he realized there were no tracks in the sand, as if the yatai had simply appeared there. Maybe the ocean had washed the tracks away. Never mind that the sand wasn't wet anywhere near the yatai.

“Hello?” Rin was the first to break the silence.

Haru searched his pockets. He had no money. His stomach dropped. He’d finally found the LMY and he wouldn’t be able to try it.

“Two orders, coming up,” came a man’s voice. Haru couldn’t see him, the curtains of the yatai kept him hidden, but it was such an average voice, neither too deep nor too high, that Haru wondered if perhaps the LMY was nothing more than a ordinary (albeit eccentrically located) yatai after all.

He was dispelled of that notion when he ducked under the curtains.

“Holy shit,” said Rin.

Haru could only see the side of the man’s face as he cooked but it was more than enough to see that he was not a man at all—or at least that he was not fully a man. He had the head of a fish, though it was impossible to say what the rest of him looked like underneath his clothing. He had hands at least, Haru noticed, though they were more than a little scaly. He thought he could see a little webbing on them too.

“Haruka, this is for you,” the fish-man said, putting a plate of mackerel down on the counter.

“I don’t have any money.”

“That’s fine. I don’t like money anyway. How about that watch of yours?”

Haruka held out his wrist. “This?”

“Yeah, I like the look of that.”

Haruka took off his watch and handed it to the fish-man. The fish-man made a noise of satisfaction that Haru did not think a normal human could make.

“As for you Rin, I’ll take that anklet of yours.”

Rin opened his mouth and then closed it, looking more like a fish than the fish-man. Without a word, he bent down and took off his anklet, and handed it to the fish-man who eyed it approvingly.

“Very nice.” He moved quickly to bring out another plate of mackerel.

“Eat up. When you’re done, leave your plates on the counter. I’m going out for a walk. Maybe a swim. We’ll see. It was a pleasure seeing you.” With that, the fish-man walked out from behind the counter set out on a stroll along the beach.

“I’m not hallucinating, right? He really has a fish head?” Rin asked as the fish-man walked further away.

“You’re not hallucinating. Unless we both are.”

“How does he know our names?”

Haru shrugged. “Just eat already. Itadakimasu.”

“Itadakimasu,” said Rin, frowning.

Haru took a bite of the mackerel. It was the ordinary mackerel flavor he loved but _more_. He couldn’t tell what was in it, what ingredient or ingredients, or if it was the fish itself, he just knew it was the best mackerel he’d ever eaten and that he’d never be able to copy it.

“This is delicious, actually,” Rin said between bites. “Damn, I can’t believe this is mackerel.”

Haru shot him a glare, not that he noticed.

When they were finished, they left their plates on the counter and got up to leave. Haru couldn’t see the man-fish anywhere. The only tracks in the sand were the ones they’d made earlier.

“I guess we should go,” said Haru, he stomach satisfied even if his mind was more than a little disorientated.

“Yeah.”

Reluctantly they left, walking back the way they came. Haru’s neck tingled. He turned around. The LMY was gone.

“We definitely didn’t hallucinate that, right?” Rin asked again.

“Nope.”

“I wonder who he was.”

“A god maybe?”

“Maybe. Think we’ll ever find it again?”

“Of course,” Haru said, though the certainty he’d felt while searching for the yatai was gone.

“Crap. I should have taken a picture of it.” Rin pulled out his phone. “I was so dazed, I couldn’t even think straight.”

Haru was sure it wasn’t an accident Rin hadn’t thought of pulling out his phone, but that it was part of whatever magic that kept people from finding the yatai, but he refrained from mentioning it, knowing Rin probably understood that too.

“Next time,” said Haru.


End file.
